While food is a proven necessity of life, the types of food we buy are largely subjective—but very important to consider in environmental impacts of human actions. Some forms of agriculture are more environmentally harmful than others: monocropping decreases biodiversity, concentrated animal feeding operations can pollute groundwater and release greenhouse gases, and genetically modified organisms have unknown repercussions. As the human population is exponentially increasing, reaching an unprecedented 7.125 billion, how we handle the increasing resource strains is increasingly essential to protecting the earth for future generations.
Moving toward more sustainable agricultural techniques is crucial to maintaining both the environment and the projected nine billion people in the future. To make this a reality, limiting the expansion of farmland is extremely important. Throughout history, slash and burn tactics were used to deforest areas so that livestock and plants could be planted; however, this rapidly depleted these soils of nutrients and led to a decrease in biodiv ersity. As these areas have become barren, the cycle of expanding has snowballed into vast forests becoming nothing but fields. With the vast array of technologies available, rehabilitating these areas to their previous state or utilizing them for growing food would sustain the human population while not jeopardizing the future.